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Well, he was leading an armed revolt against the governemnt. I don't know what treason laws are like in the modern day, but if they exist, they could apply.
The part of the SHRA that no one seems to be really considering the consequences of is that, based on what we've seen of the Initiative and in She-Hulk, anyone registered is subject to immediate and presumably lifelong or until you lose your powers draft into government service, where they presumably decide your pay and location (hey, someone's got to defend Mississippi...). This amounts to government sponsored slavery, and puts the US on a level with how Genosha was first introduced. So Cap could be charged with refusal to subject himself to said draft.
For all intents and purposes, he has already met the basic standards of "registration."
Well, he's met the spirit of the law there but not the letter of it, I would think.
I mean, when I was about to turn 18 I got a form in the mail from Selective Service -- clearly, they knew my name, address, and age, but that didn't mean I didn't still have to register.
Likewise, if you get busted for driving without a driver's license, saying, "Well, I took driver's ed and everybody knows I'm a good driver" isn't much of an excuse -- you're supposed to go through the procedure.
It might be a bit silly to single Cap out, but then again, most things about the way the SHRA has been enforced have been pretty silly.
Seems like it would be relatively easy to convict Cap on charges like obstruction of justice, harboring fugitives, etc.
BTW, has Millar basically retconned SHIELD into being explicitly a U.S. Federal organization? Or does he just not care?
That's what bugs me about this whole storyline. The storyline is, in essence, about a statutory law, so shouldn't someone involved, somewhere, have:
1. some inkling of what the statute says, and
2. some inkling of how the law and U.S. Constitution work?
How about aiding and abetting violation of the SHRA? Resisting arrest? Assault and battery? When you're on the wrong side of the law practically everything you do is a crime. Of course, since I believe the statute is ultimately unconstitutional, at least in part, and in that Cap is reportedly dead (meaning I don't buy it for a second), this is all kind of irrelevant, except to us law and comics geeks.
"So Cap could be charged with refusal to subject himself to said draft."
"How about aiding and abetting violation of the SHRA? Resisting arrest? Assault and battery? When you're on the wrong side of the law practically everything you do is a crime."
Both are very true, but the problem I see with those is that it's rather absurd to single out Steve Rogers for prosecution for any of those offenses, while simultaneously granting a virtual pardon to everyone else on his side who did as much and more.
On the other hand, leading the incursion into 42 is something that can be more directly pinned on Cap. Masterminding a jailbreak from a federal prison would certainly land you in court.
"Well, he's met the spirit of the law there but not the letter of it, I would think."
If this were a case of the government having learned of a hero's identity (like the DEO does in the DCU), then I might agree. But Cap is, and always has been, an agent of the feds. He's worked for SHIELD, who has his file. It'd look pretty pitiful in the press if Cap's huge crime was failing to reiterate his personal info for the umpteenth time.
"I mean, when I was about to turn 18 I got a form in the mail from Selective Service -- clearly, they knew my name, address, and age, but that didn't mean I didn't still have to register."
Not everyone gets a card in the mail. Granted, modern federal records like your SSN make this somewhat outdated, but at least the purpose is to inform a specific agency. Was it ever stated that "registration" involved informing any particular government agency other than "the government"?
And, of course, if you fail to register with the Selective Service, they'll send a SWAT team to your house in the middle of the night to take you to prison, just like in New Avengers.
And bare moments after the law was passed, to boot. *looks at how Luke Cage was treated*
Oh, and if the 'crime' Cap did was various things related to when he initially went fugitive, there is the complicating factor that Maria Hill was very likely giving Cap and her SHIELD subordinates illegal orders.
Just to add to a tangent, by Cap being the only one arraigned for violating a potentially unconstitutional law, he's probably the only one to have and standing in a court of law against it. But by him being dead, he can no longer sue the USA in the Supreme Court.
It's kind of like the War Powers Act that exists right now, giving Congress oversight and veto power over a check and balance that's explicitly giving to the executive branch. But since only the President has the standing to sue congress, and only if congress ever uses those powers, it can't go to the judicial branch to change it.
Of course, the only reason he's the only one being arraigned is because everyone *else* arrested and imprisoned due to the law was done so *without trial*.
Apparent, Stark and SHIELD are the total arbiters of due process, except with someone who has good PR.
According to CW:Frontline. 53 people were killed in that last assault, so should'nt murder be one of the charges?
Cap also allied himself with foriegn despots to launch his assault on US installations. If that's not high treason, it's pretty damn close.
It does bug me how little thought was put into the law that defines Marvel Comics new status quo has been given. At different times it is presented as 1) A simple registration with the government, 2) A license to "superhero" that requires you to complete certain training requirements, or 3) government conscription. Who it covers also varies. It seems to cover anyone with super powers whether or not they actively "superhero" (like Jessica Jones). However, it also seems to cover people without powers who "superhero", like Hawkeye and even Iron Man himself. If you can force Hawkeye to register, what about an Olympic Archer? Or an Olympic Swimmer for that matter? If we need to invade Atlantis, can the government say, "Pull the registration files on the Olympic swim team, we are sending them to the front line!"
"According to CW:Frontline. 53 people were killed in that last assault, so should'nt murder be one of the charges?"
I think murder is intentionally killing someone. I imagine that any deaths that happened during the battle were accidental in nature, I would think there would be some other charge instead of murder. Is manslaughter the one that means it was accidental?
"BTW, has Millar basically retconned SHIELD into being explicitly a U.S. Federal organization? Or does he just not care?"
You know, I thought that same thing. It seems like Marvel forgets a lot these days that SHIELD is a WORLDWIDE peacekeeping taskforce, not just an American one...
-M
"I think murder is intentionally killing someone. I imagine that any deaths that happened during the battle were accidental in nature, I would think there would be some other charge instead of murder. Is manslaughter the one that means it was accidental?"
It could probably be charged as felony murder, the same as accidentally killing somebody during a stickup or in a high speed chase. The fact that it's done in the course of a felony means it can be charged as murder rather than manslaughter in most jurisdictions.
Of course, this would not have been advisable for the pro-reg side, since a capital charge like that would require:
a) a finding that what Cap was doing before the casualties occurred was actually a felony, and I'm not sure it's been established that the SHRA actually made non-registration a felony rather than a misdemeanor or that a jail break can be charged as a felony when Tony Stark's own position is that the Negative Zone prison was beyond the reach of the courts, therefore they can only prosecute based on the fight after they escaped to NYC.
b) an actual investigation into the exact circumstances of all the deaths. Even if the court ruled that any collateral damage was the fault of the anti-reg side since the pro-reggers were acting pursuant to the law, it would still be pretty embarrasing for the inquest to show that three of the deaths were due to errant repulsor blasts... Where's the accountability there?
"[I]t would still be pretty embarrasing for the inquest to show that three of the deaths were due to errant repulsor blasts... Where's the accountability there?"
If they ever actually show that, actual accountabilty for a registed hero, I promise to go back and by first run copies of all the Civil War books. And not just Iron Man, either - I will accept Texas Twister, if he has to be the sacrifical lamb to prove that Tony can be trusted.
(Of course, the offer is null and void if it turns out that he is the lamb in the comics as well, and that Tony set him up as a PR stunt. And it has to be a serious attempt, not just a B-plot for Slott's She-Hulk. But the hero doesn't even have to be found guilty, just tried. Heck, I would actually prefer to see "We are sorry for your loss, but as a deputized goverment agent, you cannot sue Mr. Twister for destroying your house during his attempted capture of Spider-Man. Good day." *If we then saw those repercussions as well.*)
> Unfortunately, with Cap taking the eternal celestial dirt-nap, his prosecution is pretty much ended. That is, until "eternal" turns out to mean "temporary," in which case I expect the charges, whatever they are, will simply be dropped.
Actually, Helmut Zemo managed to get away scot-free because he'd died [not merely "thought dead" - he lost his head. The reasons he's still breathing are rather complex, involving a practical joke, a mind-meld, a digital file and an alternate version; but suffice to say, it wasn't a fake out as such, his body really had its' head chopped off and is still rotting away somewhere]. Given that he'd left a corpse, he couldn't be charged with anything.
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